As Vermont faces its worst drought in memory, a cynical lawyer representing a ski resort that wants to draw water from a local river is challenged by a female shaman who can find water beneath the earth.

At least 80% of adults who want to can dowse. Howells describes his own introduction to the art by master-dowser Gordon MacLean, and discusses basic dowser's tools from wire coat hangers to angle rods. "No one knows how dowsing works, only that it does," says the author, and then explains how to go about learning to concentrate and honing your skills, determining the quality, depth, and flow rate of underground water, diverting a vein to a new course,...